Some Kind Of Monster
by Velvet Vixsyn
Summary: A quiet girl who spends most of her time trying her best to avoid everyone finds herself helping Murphy out of a difficult situation. Bellamy enlists her and reluctantly Murphy to go on a scouting trip for a new camp along with Clarke, Octavia, Jasper, and one of Bellamy's new recruits. Starts during Murphy's Law. Eventual Bellarke.
1. I'll Be Fightn' For Ya

**A/N. This is my second 100 story. I have a Bellarke story going, and I'm still writing for that one, but I wanted to do something a little different. This story will include some eventual Bellarke, but the main focus will stick with Murphy and my OC. This will start during Murphy's Law, but won't be cannon. Part way through this chapter I will jump the time line a bit just because I don't want to regurgitate everything from Murphy's Law through Day Trip. From there I will probably use elements of some of the episodes, but it still won't really be cannon. Going to try and keep it a slow burn. Thank you for any follows, favorites, and reviews. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own The 100.**

**I'll Be Fightin' For Ya'**

It was late in the day, and I had snuck away from the camp. One thing about being on the ground that I hated was how easy it was to get dirty and gross. I was headed to a spot I had recently found to clean up. If I could help it I spent most of my time away from the others, and did my best to stay under the radar. I had always been a bit of a loner, but here on the ground with a group of rowdy delinquent minors I thought it would be best to keep myself as much as I could. I didn't trust any of them. So far it had been reasonably chaotic. Clarke tried her best to keep the group civil, but Bellamy and his lackeys were constantly countering her efforts.

I had always dreamed of living on the ground, and now I was here. Since I didn't have many friends on the Arc I spent my time studying, and learning about the ground. Back then I never thought I would ever see it, or put anything I studied to use. All of that effort was paying off now though. I reached my spot in a small stream that ran near the camp. There was a little pool that was just big enough to submerge myself in up to my stomach. The water was cold, but getting clean was worth it. Monty had found a plant that could be used as soap, and I brought some of it with me. I undressed, and got into the water. I quickly washed up. I couldn't stand to be in the water for very long, but as cold as it was I still couldn't help but marvel at how the water felt against my skin. I finished up, and got out. I wrung out my long dark hair, and let it slip over my shoulders where it fell a little lower than midway down my back. When it dried it would shorten just a little in lose waves. I stood there shivering. I wanted to air just a little before putting my clothes back on. I hated the way they felt if I just put them back on right away.

I looked at my reflection in the water. My light green eyes stared back at me. I ran a hand over my cheek. My skin was fair and smooth, and contrasted nicely with my dark hair. I licked my full pouty lips before grabbing my clothes. I put on my undergarments, and then my pants. They hung a little low on my full hips. I pulled on my shirt. It was a fitted dark blue tee. My clothes were a little snug, but you had to take what you could get on the Arc. I always had a hard time finding something that fit right anyway. My figure was on the hour glassy side, so it was either too big, or too snug. I put on my boots, and grabbed my jacket before heading back to the camp.

On my way out of the camp I had noticed something interesting. I wanted to get back, and check it out. I wasn't too far away, so it didn't take me long to get back. There was a large tree near the entrance to our camp, and when I had went out I noticed strange marks on the trunk. I found the tree again, and inspected it. The marks trailed up the tree. It looked like something, or someone had climbed it, and they looked fresh. I took a moment to study the branches of the tree. There was a trail up. I grabbed a branch, and started climbing. I climbed up fairly high, and from my vantage point I could see across almost the whole camp. If it was dark no one would be able to see me from this distance up. Someone had been in this tree watching us. We knew there were grounders, and I had a feeling they had been closer than we knew. I sat from my perch debating on whether I should tell someone or not. If I did say something I didn't know who I would tell…Clarke maybe?

I was pulled from my thoughts by an argument below me. Everyone was gathering around Clarke and Murphy. Clarke was confronting him about Wells, she had found his knife where he had been killed. Murphy was insisting that he had nothing to do with it. It was no secret that Murphy wasn't a fan of Wells, but something in my gut told me that he really didn't have anything to do with his murder. He had been asking around for the last few days for his knife. Murphy pleaded with Bellamy, but he didn't seem to be sympathetic. Conner began demanding that they float him. Clarke's anger seemed to shift to fear. I didn't think killing him was what she had in mind. Conner chanted to float him, and struck Murphy, and in a moment everyone was on him. They were dragging him off. Clarke was the only one protesting. Even Bellamy was going along with the crowd. I shook my head. Clarke's verbal attempts to plead with Bellamy to do something weren't going to cut it.

I climbed down the tree, and headed in the direction they all went in. I was fairly high up, and it took a little more time getting down than up. I took off at a run as soon as I hit the ground. By the time I made it over to them he was already strung up in a tree, and Bellamy had just kicked a stool out from under him. Murphy swung struggling helplessly in the air. Clarke was pleading with Bellamy to stop it, but he just stood there. I ran over to Bellamy, and took his axe from his belt. Luckily he didn't try to stop me. I cut the cable that held Murphy, and he fell to the ground. I took out one of my blades, and cut his restraints. I pulled the gag from his mouth. He gasped for breath, and seemed disoriented. I helped him stand up. He gave me a disbelieving look as though my help was only going to be a trick. Everyone immediately began to protest, and they looked like they were going to move in on him again.

"Stop! I did it! I killed Wells! Just stop!" Charlotte yelled. Everyone turned to look at her. Both Clarke and Bellamy's expressions sank, and Murphy looked furious. Bellamy was on her before the information had fully sank in. He grabbed her by the arm, and led her off toward his tent. Everyone followed them. Clarke, and Finn disappeared into the tent with Bellamy and Charlotte. Murphy took his cue to begin demanding justice for almost being wrongfully killed. I was hanging off to the side of the crowd trying to stay out of the thick of it all. I had probably already involved myself too much, but I couldn't watch them just kill him, and I had been right he didn't kill Wells. He was sure making an ass out himself right now though.

"Bring her out here Bellamy you can't hide her in there forever!" Murphy yelled at Bellamy's tent. "You were so quick to hang me when you thought that I was Wells killer then we should do the same to her. Who's with me?" Murphy yelled out. The group wasn't as unified about hanging a small girl, but sadly still over a dozen hands shot up. It was the way we were brought up. On the Arc justice for killing someone was getting floated. Granted she was under age, but technically so was Murphy, and they were still willing to hang him. Everything down here on the ground was more brutal and savage. Everyone seemed impatient in their decision making. I guess I couldn't be shocked that so many put their hands up. Bellamy came out of his tent alone.

"You're not going anywhere near her Murphy" He threatened staring him down. Murphy's supporters were gathering behind him. This probably wasn't going to turn out well.

Crap.

There was good chance that I would regret what I was about to do. I walked over to Murphy. He didn't seemed to notice me heading over to him. He was too focused on Bellamy, and who was in his tent behind him. He only looked at me when I stopped right in front of him. I gave him a sweet smile as I planted my feet.

"Sorry this is gonna hurt." I said before punching him hard in the face. He spun just a little before hitting the ground hard. He was out cold. Back on the Arc my dad had always been into fighting, and had shown me how to fight. It just served me well knowing how to throw a heavy hit. I turned, and looked back at Bellamy. He looked a little surprised at what I had just done. The problem was that the rest of the crowd was heading right for Bellamy, and his tent. Bellamy looked at me expectantly as though I should do something. I shrugged.

"I can't knock them all out." I said. They overwhelmed him, and sent him to the ground. A few went into his tent, but quickly came back out.

"She's not there!" A tall boy with a shaved head shouted before leading the group out of the camp to look for them. Bellamy was up, and quickly ran after them. It was getting dark, so maybe it would give Clarke and Finn a chance to keep her hidden. I looked down at Murphy who was still lying on the ground. I bent down beside him, and gave his face a little slap.

"Hey wake up." I said shaking him a little. He began to stir with a groggy moan. After a moment he sat up. He gave me a hard angry look.

"Why did you hit me?" He asked sounding not completely coherent.

"Well mostly because you were making a complete ass out of yourself." I said helping him stand up.

"Where are they?" He asked in an angry tone.

"Clarke and Finn took off with her, and everyone else went after them." I answered. He stumbled a little as he tried to walk. I grabbed him by the shoulders to keep him steady.

"Come over here, and sit down." I said leading him over to a log bench. He was still out of it, and didn't argue. He just went along with me, and sat.

"I have to go after them." He said looking toward the entrance of the camp.

"You seriously want to go through with that? You've done some pretty messed up things since we've been down here, but you're taking it to a whole new level with this." I said staring at him. He shook his head.

"I need to stop them. I wasn't going to go through with it. I just wanted to scare her, and piss off Bellamy. I was going to make a big scene out of it then let her go to show them what they should have done for me." He said. There was frantic edge to his tone, and he seemed to be coming around.

"Well come on then let's go." I said taking his hand, and pulling him up. He gave me an odd look, and just stood there.

"Why are you helping me?" He question with a suspicious look. I looked at him for a long moment.

"Since we've been down here on the ground I've tried to keep to myself, but I've also carefully watched some of you. You always seemed to act like an ass when someone else is around especially Bellamy. You're always putting on a show. I think you do it to protect yourself. I think you're afraid that someone will think you're weak, so you over compensate by being a jerk. When you think no one is looking you just…look sort of sad and lonely." I explained. He looked like someone had just punched him in the stomach. I guessed it was because my assessment of him was accurate. It took him a moment, but he gather himself.

"Is that why you saved me?" He asked.

"I saved you because I didn't think you killed Wells, and what they were doing was wrong even if you did do it, that wasn't justice. Just like the angry mob that is after that little girl isn't, so are we going to try and stop them or what?" I asked impatiently.

"Yeah let's go." He said, and we both headed out of the camp. I grabbed a light that was hanging off of the fence as we went out. It was completely dark now, and we were probably on a wild goose chase at this point. I led that way with the light. I had no idea where I was going, we were just wondering through the forest looking for any sign of anyone. I shivered it was freezing out here, and it felt like we had been walking for hours zig zaging back and forth just looking. Then we heard someone scream, and others yelling. We followed the sound, and found everyone at the edge of a cliff. Bellamy, Finn, and Charlotte stood at the very edge, and the tall boy who led the other group out had a blade to Clarke's neck threatening to kill her if Charlotte didn't hand herself over. Charlotte started to back closer to the edge.

"Steven! What are you doing? Let her go. I wasn't really going to hang her I just wanted to scare her." Murphy said to the tall boy. He gave Murphy a disgusted look.

"You're a coward Murphy. If you didn't want this then you shouldn't have started it." He said.

"Stop just let her go. I'll go with you just don't hurt her." Charlotte said. Almost everyone collectively told her no, but she shook her head.

"I have to. I don't want to hurt anyone else. I killed him, and I would just keep hurting people. I was going to do it anyway, and there's nothing you can do about it." She said before leaping off the edge. Bellamy reached for her, but she was too quick. Steven let Clarke go, and she and Bellamy screamed after Charlotte. Murphy looked horrified, and shook his head in shock. A moment later Bellamy was on Steven. He had him to the ground, and was pounding away at his face. Finn and Clarke eventually pulled him away.

"You you're going to pay for this." He spat at Steven.

"No! No more of this we aren't killing anyone else!" Clarke almost yelled.

"Then what are we going to do with him? Just let him go? Who decides? Who makes the rules?" Bellamy questioned. Clarke stood there for a moment just looking at him.

"We banish him, and we do. We decided, and we make the rules for now." Clarke answered. Bellamy seemed to concede to her answer.

"What about him?" Bellamy asked pointing to Murphy who was crouching on the ground with his hands on his head. He seemed distraught. It was a little unnerving seeing him like that considering his usual behavior.

"We banish him too." Clarke said. I shook my head.

"No. If you banish him then you have to banish me, and the rest of this mob." I said in harsh flat tone.

"Why would we banish you? You didn't do anything. You even knocked him out to try and stop him." Bellamy questioned.

"Well knocking him out may have made things worse. The first thing he said when he woke up was that he wasn't really going to go through with it. If I hadn't knocked him out, it may not have gone so far." I answered. Bellamy shook his head.

"You couldn't have known that." He said.

"You're right, and even though what he did was stupid he couldn't of known that it would have went this far either." I said.

"Fine, but if he messes up again he's out, and you if I ever see you again you won't get a second chance." Bellamy said pointing at Steven before walking off. Steven ran off into the woods, and everyone else began to follow Bellamy. Murphy slowly stood up, and began to wander off in the wrong direction from the camp. I followed him.

"Where are you going? You're headed the wrong way." I said.

"I'm not going back to the camp. You should have just let them banish me." He said quietly.

"Don't be stupid. I just put myself on the line back there for you. Bellamy could have agreed with banishing me too, and you owe me for cutting you down from that tree today." I said grabbing his arm, and stopping him. He just stared at me for a moment.

"Why do you want me to go back? I'm a jerk. I hurt everyone, and no one there wants me to go back…I got a little girl killed." He said in a quiet raspy voice.

"Okay maybe you're right about some of that, but you didn't get Charlotte killed. That little girl had some serious problems, and I think even if you weren't involved things just wouldn't have turned out well for her. She even said that she had been planning on doing what she just did, so I don't think it would have mattered what you did in the long run. She made her own choices, and nothing you did could change that." I said trying to reason with him. I let my hand slip from his arm down to his hand, and led him toward the camp. He didn't protest, and he didn't say anything more. It didn't take as long to get back to camp since we weren't wandering randomly through the forest looking for anyone this time. When we entered the camp it was quiet everyone was asleep. I took Murphy over to one of the main fire pits that was still going. I sat him down on a log bench, and threw another log on the fire.

"Stay here I'll be right back." I said, but it didn't look like it even registered. He just stared off into nothing. I went to our makeshift water shed. I filled a bowl up with water, and grabbed a wash cloth. I headed back to the fire pit, and Murphy was still where I left him. I set the bowl down on the bench next to him, and dipped the cloth in the water. I gently cleaned the blood and dirt from his face, and neck. I tried to be as careful as I could cleaning him. I cleaned his arms and hands too. He was pretty banged up. He had a black eye, and bruised cheek from me hitting him, and the others when they tried to hang him. His neck had a thick bruise running all the way around it too. It looked like he still had the cable wrapped around him. Every part of him had to so sore. He was still staring off, and it was becoming very unnerving. I tried to shake him a little, but he gave no response.

"Murphy…Murphy…Hey." I said, but he still just sat there. I debated on what I wanted to do. I couldn't just leave him here like this. I stood up, and straddled him on the bench. I hesitated for just a brief moment before kissing him. I let my hands rest against his chest as I softly kissed at his lips. He still didn't move for a moment then finally I felt him kiss back, and a tingle rippled through me. His lips were so soft, and he was so warm compared to the cold night air. I felt his hands move up to my waist, and he pulled me a little closer. I only meant to snap him out of it, but I started to get lost in the way his lips gently pulled at mine. For someone who was usually so harsh and cruel, right now he was only sweet and tender with me. Being so close to someone made me realize how lonely I felt. I had made a solid effort to keep my distance from the others, but maybe it wasn't as good for me as I had thought. I wasn't sure how long we sat there kissing, but I needed to get myself together. I pulled away, and looked at him. His eyes lingered over my lips before meeting my eyes. He looked coherent now, but relaxed…or maybe sleepy.

"Why did you do that?" He asked in a quiet husky voice.

"I wanted to snap you out of it. You were almost catatonic…I was going to slap you, but I figured since I already knocked you out once today, and with you getting beaten and hanged I thought I would try something less violent…don't let it go to your head, I just wanted to wake you up." I answered.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" He asked in that same quiet voice.

"Because…I don't think anyone has been nice to you in a long time." I answered studying his eyes. A deep sadness washed over him. "What are you thinking about?" I asked. I could see tears begin to well in his eyes.

"My mom." He said but it came out in less than a whisper.

"Is she back on the Arc?" I asked quietly.

"No…Jaha floated her, and my dad." He answered. I felt my chest tighten. I understood that pain, I had felt it myself. I ran my fingers through his hair smoothing it back. He closed his eyes for a moment.

"Can I ask why Jaha did it?" I asked.

"My mom was pregnant with another baby. They weren't sure how it could have happened, but it did. It wasn't planed. I think my mom was in denial about it, because by the time they admitted it to themselves she was pretty far along. They thought that they could petition the council to let them keep the baby, but that's obviously not what happened. They forced her to...they took the baby. It was a girl, I was supposed to have a little sister. My mom went mad after, and tried to take out Jaha. My dad went after her to try and stop her. They charged them both, and floated them. I tried to stop it, and was arrested. That's why I'm here." He explained. Tears were slowly rolling down his cheeks. I pulled him close to me, and hugged him. His arms wrapped tightly around me as he buried his face into my shoulder.

"I'm sorry." I whispered. We sat there holding each other for a long time before he pulled away just a little.

"Thank you for helping me today even though I still don't understand why you did it…I don't even know your name." He said letting his hands slip from my back down to my waist again. He looked broken and defeated, and something about that made me just want to help him, and protect him. He had done a pretty good job of making an ass out of himself most of the time, but after everything that had just happened I knew there was more to him, and I was curious to see the rest of it.

"My names Nixie, and you're welcome. It's late we should get some sleep. Where is your tent?" I asked trying to break some of the tension.

"It's right over there." He answered pointing to a nearby tent. I stood up, and took his hand pulling him to his feet.

"Come on let's get your stuff." I said walking toward his tent.

"Why do I need to get my stuff?" He asked.

"Because you're not staying in your tent. Just in case there is any residual animosity. You can stay in mine no one has paid attention to where mine is, and besides Bellamy will probably take it back since you're not one of his lackeys anymore." I said. He didn't put up any protest, and just gathered up his things. He followed me back to my tent. It was much smaller than his, but we could still stand inside, and there was enough room for both of our bed mats. He laid down his mat and bedding. Then turned to me.

"You don't have to let me stay here. I can go find somewhere else to sleep." He said.

"Well there isn't really anywhere else for you to go stay, and it's fine I don't mind you staying in here. I know you have be exhausted just get some sleep." I said getting into my bed, and trying to get comfortable. He laid down to, and it only took a few moment before we were both asleep.

It had been a few weeks since everything had happened. Murphy and I spent most of our time out of camp in the woods. I thought it would be a good idea to keep some distance between him, and the others until things calmed down. He had been much more quite since everything had happened, and for the most part kept to himself unless he was with me. Last night Clarke and Bellamy had brought guns back to the camp. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. I still thought that most of our camp was full of idiots especially after everything that happened with Murphy. If they had guns when they lynched him then I probably wouldn't have had even a chance to help him. I shook that thought from my head. It was getting colder everyday too. The tents weren't going to cut it much longer, and I was worried about the grounders retaliating for kidnapping one of their own although it had been quiet lately.

It was somewhere around mid-morning, and I walked out of my tent to head for the water shed. I was thirsty, and needed some water. When I approached the water shed Derek was there leaning against a tree. I rolled my eyes. I disliked him more than most of the others. He liked to give Murphy a particularly hard time, and Derek and I shared a little history back up on the Arc. I considered just leaving, and was already turning away when I say Bellamy headed my direction with an intent look on his face. I looked at the water. Thirst was going to win out. I took out my water container, and started filling it.

"I don't know why you let that ass hat Murphy sleep in your tent. You should kick him out, and let me move in." Derek said in a condescending tone. I pulled a knife from the harness on my back, and threw it at him. It stuck in the tree just shy of his head.

"Next time it will be your face it's sticking out of." I said giving him a cold look. Derek looked at Bellamy who was now standing next to me with a look that said _are you going to do something about that_?

"Don't look at me, you heard her." Bellamy said with a smirk. Derek stomped off, and I grabbed my knife out of the tree. Bellamy was staring at now sizing me up.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"You're pretty good with those. Did you make them?" He asked gesturing to my knives. I kept a set of five in a harness I made from straps off of the drop ship on my back, and I kept another two strapped to my thigh.

"Yeah from fragments that came off the drop ship when we landed." I answered bluntly. He was dancing around my question.

"Can I see one?" He asked. I hesitated for a moment then handed him one. He looked over the blade. "How did you get it so smooth and sharp?" He asked.

"I spent a lot of time on it. It needs to be really smooth and sharp to throw accurately." I answered and he handed it back to me.

"You didn't just learn how to throw like that since we've been down here. I've also been told you're good at tracking and hunting." He said still wearing that smirk. At least he was starting to get to the point.

"No I didn't. My dad was on the guard, and he was always interested in fighting, and weapons. He taught me a lot." I said giving him the bare minimum of information.

"Okay well we need a tracker, and someone who is good with weapons. Clarke and I just talked with Jaha and Kane, and they gave us coordinates to a place we might be able to make a better camp at. It would be a about a five day trip." He explained.

"Hmm a five day trip out tromping around in the woods with you, and whoever else. No thanks." I said flatly. "Wait why were _you_ talking to Jaha?" I asked curiously. He gave me a frustrated look.

"Jaha pardoned me, and we need a good tracker. Finn isn't well enough to make that kind of trip yet…This place is supposed to have a hot spring, and if it's livable we were going to leave part of our group there then go back for the rest of the camp. You could stay, and you can pick where you want to stay first." Bellamy said pleading with me a little now.

"What is this place supposed to be?" I asked. The hot spring had sparked my interest, but I wasn't going to give in just yet.

"It's a cave system that used to be a tourist attraction called the Blue Cavern. There are supposed to be two springs running through it, so we would have fresh water. We have to check this place out. Our camp isn't going to get us through winter, and we have to start considering moving farther from grounder territory." Bellamy explained.

"Okay I'll go, but Murphy comes too." I said giving him a little smirk of my own.

"No. Murphy isn't coming with us." Bellamy said firmly.

"Okay then I'm not going." I said turning to walk away.

"We need you to go." Bellamy said grabbing my arm. I gave him a look before glancing at the knife strapped to my thigh. He let go of my arm.

"I'm not going unless Murphy goes too. I thought that you would be a little more understanding since you were just pardoned by Jaha, and you weren't exactly faultless in everything that happened. You would have wrongly killed him if I hadn't stopped it." I said cocking my head to the side.

"Fine he can come. We leave in an hour meet us at the gate." He said walking away. I finished getting my water before I headed back to my tent, and when I went in Murphy was laying on his mat with his arm laying over his eyes. I sat down on my mat.

"Hey." I said nudging him. He moved his arm, and looked over at me. He had such pretty blue eyes, but he looked tired. It was hard to get a good night's sleep now with it being so cold at night.

"Yeah what's up?" He asked.

"We're taking a little trip to scout out a new camp, and we need to leave in an hour." I said.

"Where are we going? Just you and me?" He asked sitting up.

"Bellamy and Clarke talked to Jaha and Kane this morning, and they gave them coordinates to a place called the Blue Cavern that we may be able to use as shelter." I explained.

"Is Bellamy going?" He asked with a hard look.

"Yes he is going, and I'm not sure who else yet, but a decent size group I'm guessing. He said that if it's livable some of us will stay while the rest go back to bring everyone else from the camp." I answered.

"I'm not going if he is going." He said flopping back down on his mat. I rolled my eyes. I had a feeling he was going to say something like that.

"Yes you are. There is supposed to be a hot spring, and Bellamy said we could have first pick of where we want to stay in the cave." I said trying to convince him.

"I don't want to be stuck on a trip with Bellamy, and I'm surprised he agreed to let me go." He said giving me a questioning look.

"Well I told him I wouldn't go unless you came, and he needs a tracker so he had to say yes." I said. His expression softened, and I could tell he was giving in.

"Alright I'll go." He said caving.

"Good get up we need to pack our stuff." I said getting up too. We used parts of our tent to make packs to carry our things which wasn't much. That wasn't a bad thing it would make travel easier. I helped Murphy put on a harness like mine. The last few weeks we had worked on making him a set of knives, and I had been teaching him how to throw them. He was getting fairly good at it, but he still wasn't as good as me. We collected some rations, and headed for the gate.

When we got to the gate Bellamy and Clarke were there waiting. Jasper, Octavia, Derek, and one of Bellamy's new lackeys Sean were all there too. Nearly everyone gave us a hard looks except Clarke, and the new guy Sean.

"Where are we headed? What are the coordinates?" I asked trying to break the tension. Clarke stepped closer to me, and we went over where we were headed. We agreed that Murphy and I would walk at the head of the group, and Bellamy and Derek would follow up the back. We moved south back behind our camp. We had the better part of the day, and could probably cover a decent amount of ground. I tried to keep Murphy and I ahead just out of ear shot most of the time. I figured it was better that way to avoid conflict, and I didn't much care for being close to the group anyway.

"How long is the trip supposed to take?" Murphy asked me quietly as we walked.

"Bellamy said about five days." I answered. He gave me a dirty look. I kept that part to myself earlier. I knew he wouldn't like being out here that long, and it would have only made it harder to get him to go.

"Don't give me that look. It's not that bad we've been out here for hours, and you haven't even had to look at him." I said shoving his shoulder a little. He gave me a small halfcocked smile.

"We should stop soon it's starting to get dark. Do you think we should make a fire, or will that draw unwanted attention?" He asked.

"I haven't seen any sign of grounders, and usually when I have found tracks they aren't often on the south side. I think it will be okay, and it might keep animals away. Keep an eye out for a good place to stop." I answered. He nodded in agreement.

We walked for about another mile before finding a nice place to stop. There was a large pine sitting on a little ridge. It would make for good cover. The wall of the ridge would help keep some of the heat from the fire close. When we spotted it I called back to Clarke, and told her we should stop for the night. The rest of them agreed, and we all went to work collecting firewood, and setting up our mats. We decided that we would all take shifts in twos to stay up on watch. I offered to take the first one, and before Murphy could say anything Sean offered to stay up with me. That put Murphy with Jasper on the second shift, Octavia with Derek, and Bellamy and Clarke last. At least Murphy wasn't with Derek or Bellamy. He still gave me a disapproving look about the situation. We made two smaller fire pits since there were so many of us.

We all had something to eat before everyone settled in. Sean, Jasper, Murphy, and I all sat at one fire pit, and everyone else at the other. Sean and Jasper set their mats up on either side of Murphy and I's with Sean next to mine. I didn't like being stuck between them all. Murphy's mat was butted up close to mine, and Sean's was almost the same. It made me feel a little crowded. Jasper was out as soon as he hit his mat, and the others were all laying down too now. Murphy was still sitting up. I got the feeling he was still not happy about not being able to take the first watch with me. I leaned a close to him.

"You should get some sleep." I whispered.

"I'm not that tired yet." He said in a hushed voice.

"Yes you are. You were tired before we left." I whispered back. He gave me a pouty look. I knew he was angry, but I couldn't help but smile when he had that look on his face. He looked so cute when he was mad. He flopped down pulling his blanket over him facing away from me. I smirked and stared at the fire. Sean and I sat in silence for a while, and it didn't take long before everyone was asleep even Murphy. I glanced over at Sean. I hadn't really paid any attention to him before, but I didn't have much else to do for the next few hours, so I looked him over. He was tall, and solidly built. Close to Bellamy's size. He had dark green eyes, and shaggy brown hair that suited him. He was cute in a boy next door sort of way.

"You think this place is going to work out?" Sean asked quietly. I wondered if he noticed me looking at him.

"I don't know I hope so. I really want to use the hot spring." I answered.

"Yeah I was thinking the same thing. It would be so nice to have warm water especially now that it's so cold." He said. Murphy made a mumbling sound, and I looked at him. He seemed to still be asleep. Then he rolled over almost on top of me wrapping his arm over my lap, and snuggling his face against my upper thigh. He shivered a little. I pulled his blanket back over him. I gently ran my fingers through his hair brushing it back from his eyes. He looked so sweet when he was sleeping. I let my fingertips trail over his forehead. He was cold, and so was I. The small fires helped, but the air was almost freezing. It felt nice having him snuggled against me. We hadn't been next to each other like that since the night he was almost hanged. I realized now that I missed it. I still had a few hours left of my watch, but I really wanted to lay down and cuddle next to him. Instead I just continued to stroke his hair.

"So you share a tent with him?" Sean asked in a tone that said he was really asking something else.

"Yeah I share a tent with him." I answered flatly.

"Are you guys together?" He asked. I rolled my eyes.

"No we just share a tent." I answered with more of an irritated edge to my voice now.

"I was just curious." He said.

"Oh and why is that?" I questioned. He blushed, and seemed lost for words.

"I just…I didn't know if you were…um you know…available?" He stampeded out. I think he was trying say he was interested in me. It was kind of cute how he got all flustered about it. I wasn't sure how to answer him though.

"Okay." I said being purposefully vague. He seemed too embarrassed to question it anymore, and I was relieved. I looked back down at Murphy, and I felt him hug me a little with the arm that rested over my lap. I wondered if he really was asleep or not. We spent most of the rest of our shift in silence.

"We should wake them up now. I'll wake up Jasper." Sean said breaking the silence. I nodded in agreement.

"Murphy it's time to get up it's your shift." I said gently shaking him a little. He began to move a little, and looked up at me. A moment later he pulled his arm back.

"Sorry." He said in a groggy whisper.

"It's alright you kept me warm." I whispered back. He sat up, and rubbed his eyes. I felt bad waking him. I knew he was still really tired, but he would get to go back to sleep in a few hours. He rested his arms over his drawn up knees, and peeked over at me with a smile. He looked sort of adorable sitting there like that with his hair falling in his eyes, and that coy look he gave me.

"You should get some sleep, I'm awake now." He said in a soft tone. I nodded at him, and laid down. I rolled over on my side facing away from him, but I reached my arm behind me. I let my hand wander until I felt his hand. He took it, and laced his finger in with mine. I wasn't sure why I did it, I just wanted reassurance that he was there. It only took me a few moments to fall asleep.

When I woke up I was warm, and it took me a moment to realize why. Murphy was behind me with his arm wrapped around my waist. I could feel his face pressed into his face pressed into the back of my neck, and the gentle rhythm of his breathing was comforting. We had the blankets pulled over our heads, but I was sure it was light out, and I could hear the others moving around us.

"Come on wake up you two. We need to get going." I heard Bellamy say. Murphy shifted a little, and hugged me closer to him. That familiar tingle washed over me. I took his hand, and gave it a little squeeze.

"We need to get up." I said quietly, and I felt him pull away. We both sat up. The cold air stung at my skin, and I rubbed my face trying to wake up. Jasper was still sitting on his mat trying to wake up also. I stood up, and began packing my bedding away. Murphy did the same. We took a few minutes to eat and drink something while everyone got their stuff sorted, and together. I went over our route with Clarke, and we headed back out on our trail. Murphy and I took the lead again staying several paces ahead of the others.

"Umm was it okay that I slept next to you like that?" Murphy asked in a sort of insecure tone. I looked at him with a small smile.

"Yeah it was fine. I probably would have frozen if you didn't. It's getting so much colder at night." I said touching his arm in a reassuring way.

"Okay." He said simply.

"Were you awake last night when I was talking to Sean?" I asked curiously.

"No…why?" He asked as he played with one of his knives.

"No reason I was just curious." I answered. I got the feeling he wasn't being honest. I think that he was awake, and just didn't want to admit it. We had been hiking for a few hours when we came to a narrow part of the trail that was flanked by a rocky wall and small ravine. Murphy went ahead of me, and Sean was right behind me as we edged along the trail. As I stepped a few rocks shifted under my foot, and I began to slip, but Sean had his arms around me before I could fall pulling me close to him. Murphy looked back at me, and when he saw me in Sean's arms his jaw set, and his eyes narrowed. Sean held onto me for a moment before I pushed away from him, and Murphy turned away as he started walking again.

"Are you okay?" Sean asked keeping a hand on my back as we started to walk again.

"I'm fine…thanks." I answered. I caught up with Murphy, but he didn't say much for the rest of the day. He seemed irritated about what had happened. When it got late Bellamy decided to make camp near a stream. We decided who would take watches, and when. Tonight I was taking the last watch with Murphy. We set our stuff up, and gathered firewood. Sean set his mat up next to mine again, and Murphy was set up on the other side of me. Murphy looked annoyed, and walked away about ten yards over to the stream.

"Hey we picked some berries do you want some?" Sean asked. I looked at him for a moment before taking a few of the berries.

"Thanks." I said glancing back at Murphy. Derek was walking over to him. He stopped next to Murphy, and it looked like he was talking to him. That made me nervous.

"I'm so tired of hiking. I hope there really is a hot spring there. It's so cold at night now. Maybe we could just sleep in the hot spring." Sean said with a little laugh

"Yeah it would be nice." I said giving him a small smile. Bellamy walked over to us, and handed me some dried meat rations.

"We should try and hunt tomorrow. We have enough dry meat, but it would be nice to have something fresh." Bellamy said looking at me. I nodded.

"I've notice a lot of small game trails. It will take more time to get to this place if we stop to hunt, maybe Murphy and I can scout ahead. We might be able to get something without the noise of the whole group." I said.

"Yeah that sounds good, but just don't go too far ahead." He said looking behind me. I turned to look too. Derek was leaning against a large rock with a smug look on his face, and Murphy looked like he was ready to tackle him. Bellamy and I both walked over to them. Derek gave me a cocky grin, and I glared back at him.

"What are you two talking about?" I asked.

"I was just reminiscing with Murphy about some of the good times you and I had back up on the Arc." Derek answered.

"I never had any good times with you." I said feeling the anger bubble up inside of me.

"Oh we did." He said in a teasing tone.

"Still have one with your name on it." I said tapping one of the knives strapped to my thigh. I smiled as I watch his smirk fade. I turned to Murphy. He didn't look at me he just kept staring at Derek. Every part of him looked tense. I stepped closer to him. Bellamy seemed content to just watch the show.

"Hey…let's go." I said gently placing my hands on his chest urging him to step back. He finally moved, and we walked along the stream. I held onto his arm as we walked, and could still feel the tension in him.

"What exactly did he say to you?" I asked breaking the silence.

"He said you slept together, and gave me a detailed recount." He answered in an angry tone. I stopped.

"I never slept with him! I've never slept with anyone." I blurted out instantly regretting that last part. I sat there fuming for a long moment trying to talk myself out of going back over there, and giving him that knife I promised him. I collected myself, and looked a Murphy. He seemed a little less tense and angry.

"You knew him on the Arc though?" He asked.

"Yeah I met him a few years ago when I was fifteen. I was just as much a loner up there as I've been down here, and one day he just kind started hanging out with me. He was really nice at first, and it was nice to have someone to spend time with. Then we sort of started dating, but when making out wasn't enough for him he told me I was a tease and dumped me." I explained. He looked angry again, and I got the feeling he was contemplating going back over there too.

"I'm sorry he did that to you." Murphy said quietly.

"I was stupid and naïve I should have known better than to date him. You know he was just trying to bate you by saying all that. He wants you to start a fight with him, so Bellamy will step in and do who knows what. You can't listen to anything he says. You need to walk away next time." I said turning to face him as I put my hands on his shoulders.

"I know. I didn't do anything." He said looking back at me. I felt myself calm down looking into his eyes. They were such a pretty deep blue, and I always found myself getting a little lost in them.

"Yeah but you looked like you were about ready to. Promise me you will just walk away next time no matter what he says." I said giving his shoulders a little squeeze. His expression softened a little.

"Okay I promise." He said after a long moment.

"Bellamy wants us to hunt tomorrow, but we still have at least a good hour or so of light left. Let's go see if we can get something now." I said letting my hands slip from his shoulders, and rest gently on his chest.

"Okay let's go." He answered. We stalked our way along the stream until we found a small grassy clearing. We sat there for a little while, and it wasn't long before we saw movement. The grass was full of game trails, and within half an hour we had five rabbits. We cleaned then in the stream, and washed up our selves before heading back to the camp.

"You're getting a lot more accurate with your throwing." I said giving him a smile.

"I'm still not as good as you yet." He said with a smirk.

"You will be, but you could put more force behind the knife. If we were trying to take down something bigger you'll need your blades to go deeper…come here I'll show you." I said stopping. We set down the rabbits, and he took out a blade. I stepped closer standing beside him. "If you want to put more force behind your throw you have to let it come from your legs just like if you're going to throw a heavy punch. You need to have a good stable stance, and plant your feet, and let all the force come from your legs, and keep tension here." I said poking him in the stomach lightly. He surprised me by letting out what sounded like a giggle.

"Did you just giggle?" I questioned.

"No." He said not looking at me.

"Yes you did…are you ticklish?" I asked playfully grabbing his side. He squirmed away, and giggled again.

"You are!" I said grabbing for him again, but he bolted away from me. I chased after him, and got him again in the side. He laughed as he leaned back against a tree, and grabbed my hands before I could do it again.

"That's not fare…are you ticklish?" He asked reaching for my side. I let him grab me, but I didn't react.

"Sorry I'm not." I answered giving him a mischievous smile.

"Don't even think about it." He said grabbing my hands again, and pulling them up around his neck before he wrapped his around my waist, and pulled me a little closer. "Promise me you won't use that against me." He said.

"That is a promise I just don't think I can make." I said smiling at him. Then I noticed something past the tree behind him. I pulled away from him, and walked over to check it out.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Small branches are broken, and they look fresh. There are tracks on the ground too. Foot prints, and something larger like a horse. They can't be more than a day old. Let's follow them little." I said. He nodded in agreement, and we grabbed the rabbits before following the trail. It rounded our camp before heading back off north. We were close to camp again, and we could hear everyone sitting around the fire chatting.

"What should we tell them?" Murphy asked in a hushed voice.

"I don't know. I don't want to put them on high alert. They always make stupid decisions when there're freaked out. We haven't had any trouble with the grounders in a while, but I'm pretty sure one of them is following us. Who do we know that has a special interest in one particular grounder?" I asked quietly.

"It's Octavia's little boyfriend." Murphy answered.

"I think he is following us…or her at least." I said.

"If we tell them Bellamy will flip out." He said.

"I know. We can't tell them yet. This might not be a bad thing. His motivation to be with Octavia could be useful he knows how to survive down here. We know some things, but everything has changed so much. He potentially could also keep us from war with the other grounders. We just need Bellamy to get on board with it." I said.

"You may be right, but there is no way he is going to go along with that. Did you see what he did to Atom, and was one of us. One of his men." He said making a good point.

"I know, but we have to try. Octavia will be on board, and if we can get Clarke okay with it that would help. We have to wear him down, and it could work." I said biting my lip.

"You mean you have to get them on board. None of them like me. I would probably make it worse." He said. I couldn't help but notice an edge of sadness in his tone. I took his hand.

"We'll figure it out, and for now we won't say anything." I said. He nodded in agreement. It was dark now, and we wandered back into camp.

"Whoa how did you get that many rabbits?" Jasper said excitedly. Everyone perked up at the mention of the rabbits.

"I knew bringing you along was a good idea." Bellamy said giving me a big smile.

"Actually Murphy got three of them." I said giving him a smile back. He gave me a nod, and we passed the rabbits to them. They had made one bigger fire, and everyone sat around it while we waited for the rabbits to cook. I sat between Murphy and Sean since that's how our mats were set up. Sean tried to make small talk with me, and every time he did Murphy's jaw would clench. When the meat was done we all ate our fill. It was nice to have a hot meal, and it made me sleepy.

"We should get to sleep we have to take the last watch." I said quietly to Murphy. Everyone else except Jasper and Sean were starting to lay down too. Murphy nodded at me, and we both tried to get comfortable on our mats. I laid there for a while trying to sleep, but it was cold. I reached over to Murphy, and touched his arm. He looked at me.

"I'm cold." I whispered. He moved over to my mat, and I turned over. I felt him pull his blankets over us. He slipped his hand around my waist, and pulled me close to him. He snuggled his face against the back of my neck. It felt so nice to have him close.

"Are you warmer?" He whispered against my skin sending a tingle down my spine.

"Yeah thank you." I said softly. He mumbled something else that I couldn't make out then I felt him kiss my neck. Every part of me relaxed, and I drifted off to sleep.

**A/N. I hoped you all enjoyed it. I was watching the Killing, and it got me thinking about the 100 again, and Richard Harmon. I thought this would be a fun and different fic to write. I had wanted to do something with Murphy since the Murphy's Law episode. I so badly wanted him to turn around after that one, but he obviously didn't. **


	2. My Eyes On Your Eyes

**A/N. It took me longer to get this out than I thought, but here it is I hope you like it. I'm glad there are a few Murphy fans out there.**

**My Eyes On Your Eyes**

"Nixie…Murphy wake up it's your shift." Octavia said gently poking at our blankets. Murphy squeezed me tightly to him before moving away, and sitting up. I sat up too, and rubbed my face trying to wake up. The air was freezing, and I really wanted to just crawl back into bed. I stood up, and stretched. I rolled up my blanket and mat, and Murphy did the same. I sat down next to a big tree, and Murphy came and sat next to me. Octavia and Jasper settled down into their beds, and it wasn't long before I could hear Jasper snoring. We sat quietly for a long time just watching the woods. The air was so cold at night, and I couldn't help but shiver.

"Come here." Murphy said pulling me over to him. I pulled off my jacket, and leaned back against his chest. I threw my jacket over the front of me, and he wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Thanks it's freezing out here." I said quietly. He hugged me close to him, and brushed my hair aside before resting his chin on my shoulder.

"Have you thought more about how to get Bellamy on board with the grounder?" He asked in a whisper.

"I'm not sure. Octavia will go with it, and if we can get Clarke to agree to it then we will have a better chance of him at least considering it. I'm just not sure how to bring it up, and I'm still not completely sure if it's Octavia's grounder…and he may not be interested in helping us." I answered.

"Do you think the grounder will try and attack us?" He asked.

"Well they haven't yet. I think they are just following us…it's weird though those tracks looked like they doubled back to the camp." I answered.

"Why would they follow us then go back to our camp?" He asked.

"I don't know, but we need to be careful until we can figure out what to do." I answered.

"Okay." He said quietly, and kissed my shoulder. I felt that familiar tingle wash over me. We sat quietly for a long while. Then we heard a long loud howl. We sat up more alert looking around, but it was still dark, and the firelight didn't go far. I sat up and pulled my jacket back on, and took out a knife. Murphy pulled out one too.

"What do you think it is?" He asked in a hushed tone.

"I don't know maybe a wolf. I'm not sure." I answered still carefully searching the perimeter of the camp. Then we heard it again this time it sounded closer.

"We should wake the others, it's almost time for them to get up anyway." He said, but Bellamy was already stirring. I went over to him, and crouched next to his mat.

"What's going on?" He asked in a groggy voice.

"We're not sure. It might be wolves. We just started hearing howling you should get up." I said. Murphy was waking up Clarke, and in a few minutes we had everyone awake. We all crowded in close to the fire watching the forest sitting carefully listening until it got light out. We then split in pairs to take a look around the camp, but couldn't see anything, and we didn't hear anymore howling.

"We should get going I don't think anything is out there anymore." Bellamy said as he began packing up his things. We all agreed, and got our stuff together. We set back out on our trail with Murphy and leading again.

"Stay close, and keep a look out for wolves…and grounders. If you see something tell me quietly. I don't want the others to freak out. Jasper is already jumpy, and I don't want him getting trigger happy with that gun." I said quietly to Murphy. He nodded in agreement. We pushed hard, and covered a lot of ground, and so far hadn't seen any sign of anything. It was starting to get late, and Bellamy wanted to make camp. I volunteered Murphy and me to get firewood. I wanted a break from the others.

"What's wrong you seem upset?" Murphy asked.

"Nothing…I just don't want to be out here anymore. I don't like the idea of making camp out in the open again. I'm just kind of missing having walls." I answered. We had stopped, and he stepped closer to me. He pulled me over to him into a hug. I let my arms wrap over his shoulders, and around his neck.

"We'll be fine. We'll be at the cave soon." He said quietly. I hugged him tighter to me. I liked being close to him, he made me feel safe.

"Okay we should get wood, and get back to camp." I mumbled into his neck. He rubbed my back, and l pulled away. We gathered up some wood, and headed back to camp. We built a fire, and set up our mats before having something to eat. I was in between Bellamy and Murphy. Bellamy and I ended up taking the first shift together, and Murphy and Sean were on the second shift. Murphy seemed irritated about it. Sean didn't seem like the type to start something, but it still made me uneasy not taking my shift with Murphy. Everyone was tired, and settled down after eating. Murphy finally laid down with his head towards the fire, and close to me. He snuggled his face into my thigh, and wrapped his arm around behind me. I ran my fingers through his hair a few times before rubbing his back until I felt his breathing slow and he was asleep.

"So why Murphy?" Bellamy asked quietly breaking the silence.

"What do you mean why Murphy?" I asked back.

"Well what made you decided to help him?" He asked carefully watching me.

"I remember him from back on the Arc, before his parents were floated. He was different. He wasn't like how he was down here, and I thought that he deserved a chance to be that person again. That and you trying to hang him for a crime he didn't commit was messed up." I answered. He sat for a long moment seemingly thinking over what I said.

"I guess most of us were different before we lost someone up on the Arc, but what was I supposed to think? They found his knife next Wells fingers where he had been killed, and everyone knew Murphy hated Wells." Bellamy said trying to defend himself.

"That may be true, but Murphy had been asking around for a few days about his knife, and being an ass in general threatening people to find it. If he was looking for his knife then he couldn't have killed him with it. You take action too quickly. You would be a better leader if you stopped to think things through a little more first." I countered.

"Okay maybe you're right about that, but being a leader is harder than you think." He said poking the fire agitatedly.

"I know it's hard for you, but despite some flaws I think you're a good leader Bellamy. I would rather you be our leader than Jaha." I said touching his arm.

"You really believe that I'm a good leader?" He asked in a slightly mocking tone giving me a condescending look.

"Don't give me that look. I do think you are a good leader. What are you going to do when the rest of them come down from the Arc?" I asked.

"I don't know I guess they take over?" He answered.

"Why? They dropped us off down here thinking we wouldn't survive, but we have. You built something out of a group of delinquents, and I don't see why we have to be governed by the Arc once they come down." I said. Bellamy looked at me for a long moment.

"So you're saying we should just be on our own?" He asked.

"Yeah. The government on the Arc is corrupt, so why would we keep dealing with that when we can start fresh down here." I answered.

"Maybe it shouldn't just be me leading." He said looking at me.

"I didn't say it had to be just you. You and Clarke should both be our leaders." I said.

"I wasn't talking about just me and Clarke. Maybe we should have a council of our own." He said.

"Yeah that could work too I guess. It's just something to think about especially if this cave works out." I said.

"Would you consider being on the council?" He asked.

"Why would you want me on the council?" I questioned.

"You're smart, and you take time to consider things. You said I rush into decisions. It would make sense to have someone like you to counter that." He answered.

"Spoken like a true leader recognizing your own faults, but you don't need me. Clarke is level headed she can help you with that." I said.

"She is to a degree, but she acts on impulse a lot of the time too. Just take it into consideration." He said leaning back watching the fire.

"I don't think it would go over well. No one even knew I existed until I saved Murphy, and that didn't exactly make me well liked." I said.

"That wouldn't matter if I was backing you." He said giving me a cocky smile. I smiled back, and shook my head.

"Maybe…really we would need to get Clarke on board with it. Despite everything she still stands behind the Arc." I said.

"We'll see how it goes with the cave, and go from there." He said.

"Okay we'll see how it goes." I said adding another log to the fire.

"So was Murphy worth it?" He asked giving me a curious look. Without thinking I instinctively ran my fingers through Murphy's hair.

"Yeah he's worth it. He deserved a second chance, you of all people should understand that." I answered. He nodded with a sincere look.

"Can I ask why you were locked up on the Arc?" He asked. I looked at him for a long moment trying to decide if I wanted to tell him.

"My father was on the guard, and when Clarke's father was arrested he learned about the Arc's failing systems. He was empathic to his cause. When my father tried to petition Clarke's father being floated they charged him. When they were going to float my father I tried to stop it. I told you before that he taught me how to fight…well I fought hard. One of them almost didn't make it. I hate that I did that. He was just there doing his job, he could have been my dad. I never want my anger to get the better of me again, so that's why I take the time to stop, and think things through. I also realized that as wrong as I thought Jaha was I didn't want to be consumed by anger, so I decided to just let it go. It wasn't easy, but if I didn't I would be letting him destroy me too. That being said even though I've decided not to waste my time hating him I still don't want him to run things down here." I explained.

"That's why we need you to help us lead everyone. I don't think I could have done what you did." He said resting his hand on top of mine. It was a reassuring gesture, and it was kind of nice. He had changed so much since we first came down.

"I'll seriously think about it, and you kind of have done what I did. You seem to have let what happen with Jaha go." I said. He seemed to take a moment to think that over.

"Yeah I guess I have, but I still think we need your help." Bellamy said.

"Bellamy since we're having an honest open conversation there is something I need to tell you about, but you need to promise to stay calm." I said. He gave me an apprehensive look.

"Okay…what is it?" He asked.

"When Murphy and I were out getting the rabbits yesterday we found some tracks. It looked like a man's and a horses tracks. They were fresh, and we followed them. They rounded the perimeter of our camp then headed back toward the drop ship…I think it's Octavia's grounder." I explained. His jaw clenched, and he gave me a hard look.

"Do you think you can track him?" He asked in a strained tone.

"I could, but I don't think we need to. I know you're not going to like this idea, but hear me out. You need to consider the possibility that the grounder's interest in Octavia could help us. He knows how to survive down here, and could keep us from going to war with the grounders. He could be an important ally." I said carefully watching him.

"So I'm supposed to just let the grounder have my sister?" He asked angrily.

"No that's not what I'm saying, and you know it. We both know that he already has her. That's why you wanted her to come on this trip because you know that they've been seeing each other, if you keep trying to stop them you are only going to push her further away. This is one of those situations that you need to stop and think things through. I know you just want to protect her, but she's not a little girl anymore. She's very headstrong, and if she wants to be with him she will, and if you don't get over it she's going to pick him, and take off." I said. He rubbed his hands over his face in frustration.

"You said it looked like he headed back to the drop ship. Why would he do that if he was watching Octavia?" He questioned.

"I'm not sure why he did that, and I'm not sure he went all the way back to the drop ship he just headed that way." I answered.

"So you think he's still following us?" He asked.

"I can only guess that he is." I answered honestly.

"How do we talk to him if we haven't actually seen him?" He asked.

"We need to talk to Octavia. I have a feeling she'll know, and I know you don't like it, but if we are going to work with him she is the key to that. Are you going to be able to handle that without flipping out because if you can't you could start a war?" I asked giving him a serious look.

"You seriously think we should do this? He could just try to kill us." He asked ignoring my question.

"Yes I think we should give it a try, and I don't think he is going to do that. If he wanted to kill us he would have done it by now…Bellamy are you going to be able to give this an honest shot?" I asked again.

"Maybe. We'll talk to Octavia and Clarke tomorrow, and go from there." He answered. I nodded in agreement. It was a start, and he didn't completely freak out about everything. He grabbed my arm firmly, but not in a hurtful way.

"Nixie thanks for trusting me enough to tell me." He said quietly. I put my hand on his and gave it a squeeze.

"Yeah well thanks for not completely freaking out." I said with a little laugh. He gave me a smile, and we both sat quietly for the rest of our watch looking at the fire.

"We need to wake them up our watch is over." Bellamy said breaking the silence.

"Okay." I said simply. I shook Murphy gently until he rolled over, and looked at me. He smiled, and sat up rubbing his face. I switched spots with him, and crawled under the blankets. I laid there for a few minutes watching him.

"You can go to sleep I'm awake now." He said giving me a small smile.

"I know." I said giving him a playful grin. I scooted over as close as I could get to him. I laid on my side with my back against his thigh, and took his hand letting it rest on my stomach. I just wanted to know that he was there, and close. He rubbed my tummy softly until I fell asleep.

I woke up warm with Murphy behind me holding me close. It didn't sound like anyone was up yet except Octavia and Clarke who were on the last watch. I could hear them quietly chatting, but was too sleepy to pay attention to what they were saying. I laid there for a few moments trying to go back to sleep when I heard a long loud howl. I quickly rolled over facing Murphy, and shook him.

"Wake up. The wolves are back." I said. He rubbed his face, and sat up a little. It took him a moment to become coherent. Everyone else was starting to stir as well. Murphy and I got up, and grabbed a blade as we looked around the camp. Like last night we couldn't see anything, and there was no movement that we could see or hear only a long loud howl every few minutes or so. We all crowded around the fire again carefully watching for any movement.

"I feel like they're just playing with us." Jasper said quietly breaking the silence.

"Do you think there is just one?" Octavia asked.

"I can't tell. It always sounds like it's coming from a different direction." I said quietly. Murphy put his arm around my back, and pulled me closer to him. I leaned in against him. I was cold, and being closer made me feel safer. We all sat there in silence just watching again until it was light out. We packed up our things, and headed back out on the trail when it was bright enough out. We all walked in silence for a while keeping a careful watch around us. Murphy and I were leading the group again, and enough distance between us that we could talk quietly without the others hearing.

"Last night I talked to Bellamy about the grounder." I said in a hushed tone.

"I thought you wanted to try and get Clarke in on it before you talked to him?" He asked.

"I was going to, but we ended up having this open honest conversation last night, and it just seemed like a good time to talk to him about it." I explained.

"I'm guessing he didn't lose it when you told him then." He said.

"No he didn't. He wasn't crazy about the idea, but he is considering it. He wants to talk to Clarke and Octavia about it, but the whole thing with the wolves I think threw things off." I said looking at him before taking his hand. He laced his fingers in with mine, and I took a deep breath.

"At least he's considering it." He said giving my hand a squeeze.

"We also talked about what we're going to do when the rest of the Arc comes down. I told him I thought that he and Clarke shouldn't let them take over running things, and he suggested we have our own council. He wants me to consider being on it." I explained.

"You should be, you're the only one of us that stops to think things through." He said smiling at me. I gave him a small smile back.

"That's what Bellamy said, but I'm not really sure I want to be that involved." I said.

"You're already involved, so you might as well have a say in what happens." He said trying to reason with me.

"Yeah I guess that's true. I'll think about it." I said. Two nights in a row of dealing with the wolves seemed to motivate everyone to push hard to cover as much ground as possible. At some points we were practically running. The terrain had changed, and we had come down from the mountains. We still seemed higher in elevation though. Most of the terrain was still thick forest except for a massive field of giant bamboo we had just made our way out of. It was getting late, but no one seemed to want to stop. We only hiked for another fifteen minutes before we came to a large clearing, and just past that stood a blue stone mountain across from a deep ravine. A concrete bridge the width of two cars connected the clearing with the mountain. On the other side of the bridge there was a large round opening.

"We found it, this is the Blue Cavern." Clarke said excitedly.

"Do you think that bridge is safe to use?" Sean asked.

"Let's check it out." Bellamy answered. We all walked over to the bridge, and carefully looked over the edge of the ravine. The bridge looked solid. It was well braced in an arch underneath of steel and concrete. There were thick decretive concrete railings along each side of the bridge that lead off and alongside the ravine in either direction for about fifty yards. For being so old it looked like it was in good shape. I peered over the edge. There was a fast moving river at the very bottom.

"I think it's okay." Clarke said. We all carefully walked across the bridge, and through the large round opening that turned out to be a short tunnel. Once we were all through we looked around in awe of the place. It was a massive dome inside. I understood why they called it the Blue Cavern. The whole place was carved out of smooth slate blue stone. The walls were lined with stairs carved out of the stone spiraling all the way to the top, and a scrolling wrought iron railing lined the stairs all the way up. The ceiling had a large opening in it the size of a small car acting as a natural sky light. Along the walls following the stairs all the way to the top there were what had to be hundreds of round openings.

"It's so much warmer in here." Sean said.

"If there's a hot spring running through here it could be keeping it warmer." Clarke said.

"What do you think all of these opening are?" Jasper asked.

"I don't know let's go look." Clarke answered. We all moved to the bottom of the stairs, and shined a light into the first opening we came to. It was a hollowed out round room the size of a small bedroom. I noticed that there were metal sconces holding torch handles lining along the walls up the stair case. That would be useful lighting the place at night. We looked into a few more of the opening, and all of them were the same.

"There are more than enough rooms here for everyone to have their own space." Bellamy said as we all walked back down to the floor of the main room. Straight across from the tunnel we came through was another tunnel about the same size.

"They said there were springs here maybe they're through that tunnel." Clarke said leading us towards it. We walked a short distance before coming to spiral staircase carved out of the stone. We wound our way up, and came out of another tunnel. We walked a little further, and the tunnel opened out into another large domed cavern. This one wasn't nearly as tall though. It looked like we were at the top of the mountain. It was filled with a large clear blue pool. This cavern had a large oval hole in the ceiling of it as well, but it ran along the far right side near to the wall. Half of it was over the walk way, and the other half over the water. There was a walkway about five feet wide surrounding half of it. On the other side of the pool the wall opened up allowing the pool to flow over the edge. The water looked shallow enough to stand in, and looked deeper the further it went out. Bellamy bent down, and felt the water.

"It's warm." Bellamy said excitedly with a smile.

"This place is awesome. We could make this work." Jasper said feeling the water too.

"I want a bath." Octavia announced.

"Okay let's get some firewood first, and set up camp in the main room downstairs. Then we can take baths, and explore this place more." Bellamy said heading back for the stairs. Everyone agreed, and followed him back down. We gathered up a large pile of wood, and a few rocks to make a fire pit then everyone headed back up to the hot spring.

"Alright girls on the left side of the pool, and boys on the right. The girls can go in first, then we'll come get in." Bellamy ordered.

"Why do the girls get to get in first?" Derek asked.

"Because they are less likely to peek when we're getting in." Bellamy said giving us all a smile. Clarke raised a brow.

"Who says we won't peek?" She asked with a playful grin. She seemed to be in a cheeky mood.

"Umm…well alright the girls get to peek if they want I guess. Come on let's go so they can get in." Bellamy said. Clarke laughed.

"I was joking don't be so uptight. We won't peek at you." Clarke said. Bellamy just smiled as he and the other boys left to wait in the hall. Murphy looked back at me, and I gave him a small smile. Once they were out of sight we all quickly undressed. A small set of stairs lead into the water, and we all got in. We all took our clothes in with us, so we could wash them. We all brought some of Monty's soap, and we all started scrubbing up right away. The water reached my collar bone, and felt amazing. It was so warm. I took a deep breath, and let myself relax. A few minutes later the boys came back, and went to the far other side of the cavern.

"Don't peek!" Jasper yelled over at us with a big goofy smile. We all laughed a little, and turned away. I started washing my clothes. It would be so nice to have clean clothes. I would have to wrap my blanket around me until my clothes dried.

"So what exactly did you do to Murphy? How did you get him to calm down?" Octavia asked in a snarky tone.

"Well it was a complicated process. I'm not sure you would understand." I answered. Both she and Clarke gave me a curious look.

"Tell us." Octavia pushed. I gave them both a serious look, and leaned in a little closer.

"I was nice to him." I answered.

"Really? I'm not buying it." Octavia scoffed.

"That's all I've done. I helped him when no one else would. I gave him a chance, and was nice to him. Sometimes a little kindness can go a long way." I said.

"Well either way just keep doing what you're doing." Clarke said breaking some of the tension. I looked over at the boys. Murphy was off a little farther from the others leaning against the wall of the pool. I wrung out my shirt and pants, and set them on the edge of the pool. I put my underwear and bra back on.

"Hey Murphy meet me in the middle." I called over to him as I started making my way along the edge of the pool towards the middle of the curve. He looked over at me with a smile, and started moving towards me. When we were close I reached out for his hand, and pulled him closer.

"I think we're breaking the rules." He said with a little laugh.

"I don't care." I said and slipped my arms around his neck. Then I paused for a moment. "Did you put your underwear back on?" I asked quietly. He gave me a playful smirk.

"Yeah." He answered simply as he wrapped his arms around my waist. I let my hands slip down and rest against his chest as I leaned my head on his shoulder.

"This place is nice." I said quietly.

"It is…it would be nicer if it was just us." He said rubbing my back. I lifted my head, and smiled at him.

"Yeah it would." I said. I watched his eyes, and I let myself get lost in the deep blue of them. I ran my fingers through his hair, and looked at his lips. He had such pretty lips, and they made me think of that night we had kissed. I leaned in, and pressed my lips to his giving him a lingering chaste kiss before leaning back, and smiling at him.

"What was that for?" He asked.

"I don't know I just wanted to." I said with a shrug. Behind Murphy I could see the other boys getting out thankfully they put their underwear back on before they did.

"Do you want to get out, and check the rest of this place out? Pick out a room maybe." I asked.

"Yeah we could do that…just a room? There's enough rooms I could get my own if you want me to." He asked.

"No. As long as you don't mind I'd like to keep sharing a room." I said giving him another kiss. He gave me a coy halfcocked smile. Clarke and Octavia were already out as well, and we moved to the nearest set of steps. I walked back over to my stuff, and grabbed my blanket. I wrapped it around me, and carefully took off my bra and underwear. They would dry a lot quicker that way. Murphy did the same. He took my hand.

"Come on lets go find a room." He said.

"Wait…look there's another tunnel over there." I said pointing to the far left end of the cavern. We walked over to the tunnel, and went through it. We walked a short way until it led us out to the main cavern. We were at the top of the stairs that spiraled around the room. Everyone else was making their way up the stairs from the bottom.

"Let's check out the rooms here at the top." I said tugging him to the nearest one. It looked the same as the one we had went in earlier, just a small round room.

"I think they are all the same. We just need to pick where we want to be." He said as we walked back out.

"Being close to the water could be nice. I think we should pick one of the rooms up here." I said looking over the closest rooms to the tunnel. There were three room past the tunnel at the very top of the stairs. The one on the end would be the most privet with no foot traffic walking by. Bellamy had climbed all the way up, and was headed toward us.

"Are any of the rooms up here different?" Bellamy asked.

"I don't think so. They are all the same I think." I answered.

"Okay well which one do you want? I promised you could pick first if you came with us." Bellamy asked.

"I want the last one up there at the top, and Murphy is staying with me." I answered.

"Okay I'm taking the one next to you then." Bellamy said.

"Did you guys find anything else down at the bottom?" I asked.

"Yeah a few of the openings down at the very bottom lead into larger rooms. We could use them to store food, weapons, and supplies." Bellamy answered.

"That reminds me, I was thinking about all that bamboo we passed just before we found this place. We could use that to build doors, and we could build a better wall out of it too. I was thinking that Clarke could sketch out plans for it, so we can show people what it needs to look like." I said.

"That's a good idea. We decided that I, Jasper, and Sean are going to go back for the others while the rest of you stay here. You could all start working on collecting some of the bamboo." Bellamy said.

"What about the grounder? We haven't talked to Clarke and Octavia about it." I asked. He looked at me for a moment. I could tell he still didn't want to deal with it.

"Alright let's go talk to them now." He said.

"I'll go get the fire started." Murphy said giving my hand a gentle squeeze before he walked back towards the small tunnel leading to the spring cavern. The other stair case would be a lot quicker to get to the bottom. Clarke and Octavia were making their way toward us, and Bellamy waved for them to hurry up. A few moments later they were at the top with us.

"Nixie and Murphy are taking the top room, and I'm taking the one next to them. Have you decided where you want to stay?" He asked.

"I'll take the one next to you Bell." Octavia answered.

"I'll take the next one over then." Clarke answered as well. Bellamy gave me a look that said _do I really have to_. I nodded at him.

"Octavia we need to talk about something." Bellamy said. Octavia looked apprehensive.

"Okay about what?" She asked.

"Nixie found tracks around our camp the night they got the rabbits. It looked like someone was watching us then headed back to the drop ship. We need to know if it's your grounder." He asked. I was impressed with how calm he was being about the whole situation. Octavia shifted nervously for a moment before she straightened up with a defiant look.

"His name is Lincoln. He was following me here, and he went back to make sure his people weren't following us here. I was going to meet him tonight." She answered in a blunt determined tone. Bellamy's jaw clenched.

"Octavia how could go off with him, and let him follow us here. We are trying to get away from the grounders." He questioned her.

"He's not going to hurt me, and didn't you here what I just said. He went back to make sure his people didn't follow us here. He left them to be with me!" Octavia nearly yelled.

"When are you supposed to meet him?" Clarke asked.

"As soon as I could slip away." She answered in a huff.

"Bellamy." I said looking right at him. I didn't have to say anything else he knew what I was reminding him of. He ran his hand through his hair in frustration.

"Octavia…I'm willing to consider letting you see the grounder, but I need to know if he is willing to help us. To be on our side." Bellamy said in a strained tone. Octavia looked slightly shocked, and so did Clarke.

"Are you sure that's a good idea Bellamy?" Clarke questioned.

"His name is Lincoln, and he might. You did kidnap and torture him." Octavia said.

"Yeah well he almost killed Finn." Bellamy shot back.

"We need to talk to him. If the two of you call a truce maybe we can get somewhere. He could help us survive down here, and Octavia is obviously going to be with him regardless of what anyone says, so let's try and make this work." I said trying to reason with everyone.

"Octavia do you think he would be willing to meet, and talk with us?" Clarke asked.

"I can ask him." Octavia said with a shrug.

"Well then go now, and we'll wait out front for you." Clarke said. Octavia went through the small tunnel to take the other stair case down. Bellamy looked at me.

"Do you really think this will work?" He asked.

"I do, but I think Jasper, Derek, and Sean should wait inside. Jasper gets too spooked about the grounders, and I don't want him getting trigger happy. I don't think you should bring any of the guns out either." I answered.

"I agree about Jasper and Derek, but I'm not meeting him unarmed." Bellamy said firmly.

"You won't be unarmed. You have your axe, and Murphy and I will be there with our knives. Besides I don't think he's going to do anything anyway." I countered.

"Maybe she's right it might go better if we don't bring the guns Bellamy." Clarke said.

"Alright, but I hope you're not wrong." Bellamy said. I nodded. We all headed for the tunnel, and made our way back down stairs. Murphy had the fire going, and had laid our clothes out to dry next to it. I told Murphy what was going on, and Bellamy explained everything to Jasper, Derek, and Sean. Jasper immediately became nervous, and Bellamy took his gun from him. He gave it to Sean, and whispered something to him. Murphy and I grabbed our knives, and he Bellamy, and I all went out to join Clarke across the bridge. We all stood there waiting for a while when Octavia and Lincoln finally came out to the clearing. Bellamy immediately tensed. Murphy stepped closer, and in front of me a little. I took his hand, and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"Bellamy Lincoln has some important information for you. It's about the camp." Octavia said as soon as she was in ear shot.

"Your camp has packed up, and are moving here following your trail. One of your ships crashed, and my people threatened to take it that you want war unless you leave our territory. I warned your tracker, and that night they packed and left." Lincoln explained. Clarke fell to her knees, and Bellamy grabbed her. He held onto her, and pulled her back to her feet into a tight hug. Her mother was supposed to be on the first drop ship down.

"Are your people going to attack now that the rest of them are leaving?" I asked stepping forward a little.

"As of right now no." Lincoln answered.

"Will they later?" I asked.

"If you stay away from their territory, then they probably won't." Lincoln answered.

"Their territory?" I questioned. He looked at Octavia.

"I'm not exactly with them anymore." Lincoln answered.

"Okay then who are you with?" I asked. He looked at Octavia again.

"Her." Lincoln answered simply.

"Could you be with us?" I asked. He looked at me for a long moment.

"I don't know you." Lincoln answered simply.

"So get to know us." I said. The slightest smile formed at the corners of his lips. Clarke started to come around, and pulled away from Bellamy.

"We have to go to the crash site, and see if any one got out." Clarke said franticly.

"Your people already did that. There was no one there. Going back will only start a war with my people." Lincoln said. Clarke stood there for a moment letting that sink in before walking back into the cavern. Bellamy looked a Lincoln.

"You're either with us or against us that's the only way we can trust you." Bellamy said. Octavia took Lincoln's hand, and he looked at her.

"Are you going to interfere with Octavia and me?" Lincoln asked. Bellamy's jaw clenched, and I grabbed his arm. He looked at me, and I stared back.

"You remember what I said the other night. You need to think carefully about what you decide." I said. He gave me a frustrated look. He looked back at Lincoln and Octavia.

"No. I won't interfere as long as you don't hurt her." Bellamy said in a strained tone. I took a deep breath. It was nearly dark, and this conversation was starting to get tiring.

"Lincoln does that mean your with us?" I asked.

"Yes." He answered simply.

"Good now that we have that settled can we talk about our game plan for getting the rest of camp here." I said looking at Bellamy.

"I have a horse, and I can get you to them quicker." Lincoln said. We both looked at him.

"Okay tomorrow we head out. We need to make sure they stay on the right trail." Bellamy said.

"I'm going too." Octavia said.

"You can't I can only carry one more person on the horse." Lincoln said. Octavia looked frustrated, but didn't argue she knew he was right.

"Come on let's go inside it's getting dark." Bellamy said.

"Let us go in first, and make sure Jasper isn't armed." I said grabbing Murphy's hand, and heading towards the cavern. The others were all sitting around the fire pit. Jasper had his arm around Clarke.

"Lincoln the grounder is joining us, so whatever prejudice you have towards him I suggest you forget about." I said looking at Jasper. He looked a little shocked at what I said, but I wanted to make it clear that I wasn't going to tolerate him doing anything foolish.

"He's staying in here with us?" Sean asked.

"He's one of us now, so yeah he's staying in here, and just so we're all clear I have a blade for anyone who try's anything with him." I said giving him a serious look. Bellamy, Octavia, and Lincoln joined us at the fire a moment later. Octavia gave me a small smile, and we all sat in an awkward silence.

"Who's taking the first watch?" Octavia asked.

"Sean and Derek will take the first watch, Jasper and I will take the second, you and Lincoln will take the next one, and Nixie and Murphy will take the last watch. Clarke you should just get some rest. You don't need to worry about being on watch tonight." Bellamy answered. We all agreed, and most of them started to get comfortable on their mats except for Jasper. He still looked nervous about Lincoln being there. I got up, and grabbed my bra and underwear which were dry now from sitting next to the fire, but my other clothes were still damp though. Murphy gabbed his underwear too. It was starting to get a little awkward sitting there in our blankets. I took Murphy's hand, and led him away from the others. I turned to look at him.

"Will you hold my blanket up for me so I can get dressed?" I asked.

"Yeah." He said with a smirk.

"You have to promise not to look." I said narrowing my eyes at him. His smirk grew a little.

"I promise." He said, but it wasn't very sincere.

"I'm going to face you, and if you peek I'm going to knock you out again." I said with a playful smile.

"I won't look." He said gripping my blanket then firmly closing his eyes. I guided his hands undoing my blanket, so that it worked as a screen from the others. I quickly put on my underwear and bra.

"Okay I'm dressed." I said and he opened his eyes, and wrapped my blanket back around me.

"I told you I wouldn't peek." He said still wearing that playful smirk. I leaned in, and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Do you want me to hold your blanket up for you?" I asked giving him a mischievous look. He eyed me suspiciously.

"Alright he said switching places with me so that he was facing away from the fire pit and the others. His blanket was doubled over, and wrapped around his waist. I grabbed it, and pulled it open keeping my eyes on his eyes, and held it up for him.

"No fair you're not closing your eyes." He said quietly to me. I just smiled, and kept my eyes locked on his. He shook his head, and quickly dressed.

"I didn't peek…I just didn't close my eyes." I said. He took his blanket back, and wrapped his arms around me pulling me close.

"Tricks-E-Nixie…hey it's still early let's go back up to the hot spring." He said quietly to me.

"I don't want to get my clothes wet again." I said.

"We can just put our legs in. We haven't been alone since we caught the rabbits." He said.

"Okay we can go." I said pulling away, and taking his hand. We made our way up to the spring. We left our blankets near the tunnel entrance, and sat down at the edge of the water. He scooted close to me, and took my hand lacing his fingers with mine.

"You were pretty awesome tonight." He said. I gave him a questioning look.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"How you handled the situation with Bellamy and Lincoln. You should really consider being on the council." He answered. I watched him for a moment.

"You know, you've been less tense around him. Are you not as angry anymore?" I asked watching him carefully.

"Don't be mad at me, but the other night when you were talking to Bellamy…I was awake for most of it. I heard what you said about why you were locked up, and what you said about choosing not to hate Jaha even if he deserved it…and what you said about me being worth it. Honestly part of me still wanted to get back at Bellamy, but now I think that I'd rather try and live up to what you think of me." He explained. I leaned over, and kissed him on the cheek.

"I'm not mad that you heard all of that. I meant what I said you are worth it, and I'm glad you're willing to let go of what happened with Bellamy." I said then something on the ceiling of the cavern caught my eye. Murphy noticed it too, and we both looked up. The ceiling was glowing a pale iridescent blue.

"What is it?" Murphy asked.

"I think it's moss. It's bioluminescent." I answered. We both sat there for a while just looking at it. It was so pretty, and it gave the whole cavern a soft glow. I leaned over close to him looking at his lips before pressing mine to his, kissing him. He moved a hand up to my jaw, and gently held me as he tenderly kissed me back. His lips were so soft, and everything about the way he kissed me made me feel alive. He pulled away just a little, and rested his forehead against mine.

"We should get to bed we have to wake up early for the last watch." He said in almost a whisper. I smiled, and gave him another quick kiss before getting up. He stood to, and we grabbed our blankets before heading back down stairs. Sean and Derek were the only ones still awake on first watch. Sean scowled at me across from the fire. I ignored it, and laid down on my mat. Murphy crawled up next me, and threw our blankets over us. I laid on my side with him behind me. He wrapped his arm around my waist, and kissed the back of my neck. It was so much warmer in the cavern, and with Murphy curled up around me I felt safe and relaxed. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep.


	3. I'm With you

**A/N. It took me a lot longer to get this chapter up than I had thought it would, and it's not as good as I would like it to be, but I'm going to post it up anyway. I may go back, and do a little editing on this later. This chapter isn't very eventful, but I am excited to write the next one, and have a little more drama planed. I hope you like it, thank you so much for all of your reviews, follows, and favorites. **

**I'm With You**

"Nixie wake up, it's your watch." I heard Octavia say as she gently nudged me. Murphy squeezed me tightly to him for a moment before letting me go. We both stretched a little before sitting up.

"Okay we're up." I said with a yawn before standing up. I walked over to the rest of my clothes that had spent the night drying near the fire, and grabbed them. They were completely dry now. I sniffed them, and they smelt nice. Monty's soap had a soft floral scent to it. It was so nice to have clean clothes. I quickly dressed, and sat back down next to the fire on our mats. Murphy was up now too, and getting dressed as well.

Octavia and Lincoln settled down on her mat, and got comfortable. Murphy sat next to me, and wrapped his arm back around me, pulling me close to him. I nuzzled my face into his shoulder, and he kissed the top of my head.

"What should we work on first today?" He asked as he gently rubbed my side. It felt so nice, and was so comforting that it made me want to fall back asleep.

"I think we should collect as much of that bamboo as possible, that field was only about fifteen minutes away. We could use the bamboo to make beds, a door frame, and door to the entrance of this place." I said poking the fire a little with a stick.

"Mmm that sounds like a good idea." Murphy mumble against my neck. The feeling of his lips so close to my skin made me shiver just a little, and I couldn't help but smile.

"I'm glad we found this place, it's nice being inside of somewhere, and we didn't have to deal with wolves tonight." I said.

"It will be better when we can sleep in our own room, and don't have to wake up every night for a watch." He said. I gave him a warm smile.

"Yeah that will be nice." I said before giving him a kiss on the cheek. We sat there quietly for a while watching the fire. Clarke started to move around, and few moments later she got up. Her mat was next to ours. I gave her a small smile, and she gave one back.

"You could still sleep for another hour or so if you want." I said.

"No I can't sleep anymore, I went to bed early last night." She said rubbing her eyes.

"How are you doing?" I asked. She looked at me for a moment.

"I'm doing better. After I had time to think about it I realized that my mom may not have been on that ship. It came down almost a week early, and with everything that has been going on up there something could have happened. Someone wanted Jaha out of the way, and now that they know it's safe to come down here, maybe someone high jacked a ship, so for now I'm going to concentrate on working on this place." She explained.

"I think that's a good idea, and I think you're right about something going wrong on the Arc." I said leaning away from Murphy a little. His hand slipped away from around my back, and came to rest next to my thigh. I took his hand, and laced my fingers with his.

"Bellamy and I talked a little while we were hiking yesterday about forming a counsel. He said the two of you had talked about it the night before, and he really wants you to be on it. I agree, and I think that Octavia, and Lincoln should be too…as long as things go well with Lincoln he could provide valuable insight, so will you be a part of it?" Clarke asked watching me with a serious expression. I sat there for a long moment trying to make up my mind, then Murphy gave my hand a gentle, but firm squeeze.

"Okay I'll be a part of it." I answered taking a deep breath. I hoped that I wasn't making a mistake, I wasn't really the type to be a part of the group let alone help lead one.

"Good we'll let Bellamy know when he wakes up, and tell the others about it too." She said adding another log to the fire.

"Murphy and I were talking about starting out the day collecting some of that bamboo we passed coming into here. We could make beds out of it, and build a door frame and door for the entrance. I mentioned to Bellamy yesterday that we could also use it to build a fence. I was actually wanting to ask you if you could sketch something out. Murphy has a good idea for a design on how to build it." I said looking at him with a playful smile. He usually made a distinct point of not saying much when we were with the others, and let me do all the taking, but now that things had settled down a little I thought it would be good idea for him be at least be somewhat involved. His face was almost expressionless, but I could see the slight agitation in his eyes.

"We could do it now, let me get my sketch book and a pencil." She said getting up and rummaging through her bag. When she was done she came back over, and sat down on her mat next to us. "Okay so what did you have in mind?" She asked looking at Murphy. He looked at me then at her, and took a deep breath.

"I was thinking that we could put in sets of tall bracer polls buried into the ground by at least a foot, and about five feet apart then between each of those layer in pieces of bamboo horizontally, we would need to allow enough space between the sets of bracer polls to just barely fit two pieces of bamboo, so that they overlap each other just a little. It will make the wall thicker, and the horizontal slats will put some pressure between the sets of bracer polls making them more stable. If we can find some clay we could use that to fill the holes we put the bracers into, it will dry a little harder, and make them more stable as well. We could start the fence where the stone railing ends along the cliff, and let it wrap around just into the tree line a little. We could also build look out stations at different points. Maybe even make small huts so people can stay dry and warm in the winter." Murphy quietly explained. Clarke sketched away as he spoke, then stopped for a moment to show us the drawing.

"Does this look like what you had in mind?" She asked. He nodded.

"Yeah that looks good." He answered.

"Alright when the others are up we'll give Bellamy an update on everything, and head out to start getting the bamboo, then we can work on beds first then start working on other things. We could wait on the fence until the others get here." Clarke said adding a few things to her drawing.

"I think that's a good idea, this fence should be easier to put up. The bamboo is lighter, and the design is more uniform." I said. It was almost time for the rest of them to wake up, and Bellamy was starting to stir a bit. A few moments later he was awake, and came to sit next to Clarke on her mat. She showed him the drawing, and he agreed that we should build the fence that way.

"So…Nixie has agreed to be on our counsel." Clarke said looking at Bellamy. He looked at me with a knowing smirk.

"I agreed, and don't give me that look. I wanted to wait until you were up to add this, but I'm only willing to do this if you both agree that even if the rest of the Arc comes down we won't let them take over. I don't want a fight, but I think if they want to stay with us then they have to live under our govern, and if they don't want to then they can leave. The way they have run things on the Arc has been corrupt, and inhumane. That brings me to my next point, we can't live by the old Arc rules, which you have already changed a little, but I want to make it clear that if I do this I won't be a part of stringing anyone up. If someone breaks a rule, or does something to harm someone else then we come together as a counsel, and decide on an appropriate course of action. If it's something like what happened before then the worst thing we do is banish someone. If that is acceptable to both of you then I will be a part of this." I explained, carefully watching both of them.

"I can agree to that." Bellamy said.

"I can too." Clarke agreed. "I think that both Octavia and Lincoln should be on the counsel too." Clarke added. Bellamy gave her a bit of a hard look.

"Octavia maybe, but we don't really even know Lincoln." He said.

"Well if things go well while the two of you get the rest of the group then I think he should be a part of it. He knows about the ground, and he could give us a perspective that we may not be paying attention to." Clarke countered. Bellamy got that defeated look that he always seemed to get when Clarke was winning an argument.

"You know she's right." I said looking at Bellamy with a teasing smirk. He rolled his eyes.

"Fine if the trip to get the rest of the group goes okay then he can be a part of the counsel. I'm not sure how everyone else is going to react to a grounder being one of our leaders." He said shaking his head a little.

"Then it's up to us to make sure they are all on board with it. If we are behind it then they will follow." Clarke said giving his arm a reassuring squeeze.

"We can talk about it more when the two of you get back, until then let's just focus on getting the rest of them here, and fixing this place up." I added.

"Alright." Bellamy simply said getting up. He started waking the others up, and before long everyone was awake. Bellamy and Clarke told the other about our idea for the counsel, but for now they left out the part about Lincoln being a part of it. We all had something to eat before Bellamy and Lincoln got ready to leave. Octavia seemed reasonably apprehensive about the two of them going off together, but it would be the quickest way for them to get to the others. As soon as they were gone the rest of us headed for the bamboo field. Murphy and I walked along leading the others on the trail.

"Why did you make me tell Clarke about the fence? You could have explained it to her, I had already told you about the design." Murphy said quietly to me. He didn't look angry, but maybe a little frustrated about the situation.

"Because I don't always have to speak up for you now, things are starting to settle down. There doesn't seem to be as much tension between you and everyone else, and I think it would be a good idea for you to join the conversation now and again." I said taking his hand, and giving him a mischievous smirk.

"Okay I'll try to speak up more." He said with a coy sidelong glance. I loved it when he gave me that look, his blue eyes peaking at me through a few strands of hair that fell in front of his eyes. I was so caught up in looking at him that I hadn't noticed that we were at the bamboo field. I only stopped because I was still holding his hand. His smile broadened, and he tugged me over to him wrapping his arms around my waist before giving me a kiss. I let my arms slip over his shoulders, and pulled him closer into a tight hug for a moment before pushing away.

"Come on we have some bamboo to cut." I said turning to look at the others. Both Sean and Derek were glaring at me. I rolled my eyes, and tugged Murphy with me to the nearest patch of bamboo. We still had our throwing knifes strapped to us, but I didn't want to use those to cut the bamboo, so we brought a few bigger knives with us. We went right to work cutting it down. The bamboo was thick, but still much quicker and easier to cut down than even small trees. It didn't take any of us long to get decent bundles gathered up. We took a break from cutting bamboo, and collected vines. We would need it to make the beds and door, and could use it tie the bundles together, so we could carry them easier. When we had enough we started back to the Cavern.

The first load was probably enough to make beds for all of us, but we quickly dropped off the first load, and went right back for another. We spent the first half of the day cutting and collecting the bamboo, and ended up making five trips out. We decided to take a break at about noon to eat something before we started working on our beds. We split up into pairs to make beds. Murphy and I worked together, Clarke and Octavia paired up, and the Jasper, Sean, and Derek worked in a group. We cut the polls to the lengths we wanted them, and then had to haul them up to our rooms to build the bed. Luckily the polls were short enough to fit in the smaller stair case that led straight to the spring.

Once we had everything in our room Murphy lit a few torches, so we had enough light to see what we were doing. The huge skylight in the main Cavern let in some light, but not enough to really see what we were doing. He was clever when it came to building things, so I let him take the lead on the design of the bed. He directed me to lay out the long poles that would be the platform we would lay on first. We worked on carefully tying them together, and when we were done with that we started on the frame. We used four sets of three poles tied together as the bed posts, and two poles tied together to for the railings that the platform would sit on. We tied several single poles across the frame horizontally to support the platform. It didn't take us as long to tie together the frame, and when it was up all we had to do was attach the platform. When it was done the platform came up to about my knee, and the bed posts were about a foot and half higher than that. Murphy laid both of our mats out on the platform side by side, they fit perfectly on the top of the bed.

"You should try it out." He said standing back a little to look at it.

"Alright." I said sitting down on it. It felt really sturdy, so I laid back, and rolled over to the other side of it looking back up at him. "It's comfortable softer than stone." I said with a little laugh. He laid down next to me, and we sat there for a few minutes admiring our new bed.

"It's not bad." He said in an absent minded tone. I sat up just a little on my side facing him, propping my head up on my hand.

"Hey what's that around the door?" I asked. There was a decorative scrolling metal bar running over the doorway. It followed the arch of the round doorway, and at the very center it looked like there were two clips.

"I think it's a curtain rod, they probably used curtains as doors…we could use some of the parachute material from our tent as curtains." He said getting up, and grabbing his pack. He pulled the leftover material from our tent out. I got up, and helped him unfold it. He took out one of his blades, and cut a notch at the top of his end, and ripped the sheet of material in half. He took one half and pulled it over the rod. He let it completely double over on the other side of the rod, and the ends pooled on the floor. The piece was wide enough that it bunched up a lot, he used one of the clips in the center of the rod to hold it in place before taking the other half of the material and did the same. It looked nice, our tent fabric was white, and though you couldn't see through it, some of the light from the main cavern made them glow just softly.

"It looks nice…we actually have a real bedroom." I said looking around. We had placed our bed in the middle of the small room between the metal torch sconces.

"It does, there's enough room we could make a small table, and maybe a chair if we wanted." He said throwing our blankets on the bed.

"That's a good idea, we should come up with a design for a big table to put in the main cavern, and maybe some benches or something." I said walking around the bed over to him. I slipped my arms over his shoulders, and his found their way around my waist pulling me close to him. I nuzzled my face into his neck, and just held onto him. He rubbed my back softly for a few minutes.

"We can make big tables and benches if you want…are you okay?" He asked quietly.

"I'm fine, I just wanted to be close to you for a minute." I said pulling back just a little letting my arms slip down to his chest. He gently ran his hand over my hair before giving me a kiss on the forehead.

"I'm a little surprised you would want to make big tables, you usually don't like being around everyone else." He said giving me a curious look. I shrugged a little.

"I'm not really, but it would help the rest of the group have some solidarity, and if they have that they are more likely to work better together. If we are going to make this work everyone needs to feel a sense of comradery or family with each other. If we have that then we will be a lot less likely to come across a situation like the one you were in." I explained. His face fell a little, and he pulled me a little closer again.

"I messed up when I was helping Bellamy, everything I did was the opposite of what you want to do." He said quietly. I brought my hands up to rest on either side of his neck, and looked at him.

"You did, but that doesn't matter because you are doing the right thing now…and I need you. I don't think I can do all of this…being on a counsel without you." I said leaning my forehead against his, and I let my hands slip back down to his chest. He gave me a soft smile.

"You _could_ do it, but I need you too. I didn't like who I had become before I knew you, and I don't want to go back to that." He almost whispered. I leaned in, and gave him a kiss.

"You don't have to, I'm with you." I said peppering his lips with kisses. "We should see if the Clarke and Octavia need help. They have to build a bed for each of them, and I think they wanted to build one for Bellamy too." I said rubbing his chest.

"Alright let's go help them. Before it gets dark we should collect some more stuff for torches." He said putting out our torches before grabbing my hand, and tugging me through our curtain doorway.

"That's a good idea, we should think about hunting too while we are out gathering stuff." I said. We stopped at Octavia's room. She and Clarke were in there working on Octavia's bed. I leaned in the door way. "Hey we're done, do you guys need help?" I asked.

"We are pretty much done with Octavia's, but maybe you could start on Bellamy's bed, we already brought up everything to make it." Clarke said.

"Okay we can do that." I said, and headed for his room. Murphy grabbed the torches from our room and lit them again.

"Should we make it the same way we did ours?" He asked.

"I think so, it's a good design, and we already know how to do it." I answered. He nodded, and we went right to work building Bellamy's bed the same way we made ours. His went a little faster since we had practice with the first one.

"It's still early, you want to go get stuff for torches?" He asked.

"Yeah let's do that, we can explore the area a little too." I answered. We stopped by Clarke's room, and let them know what we were doing before heading out. We started out in the opposite direction of the bamboo field since we were already familiar with that area. We used our packs to store all of the kindling for the torches. We slowly wandered our way around collecting stuff as we went. It didn't take us long to fill our packs, and when we were done we decided to just check the area out. We hadn't gone far, and could still see the clearing in front of the Cavern, so we put our packs against a tree, and headed off down a trail. We walked quietly for a few minutes, before the terrain began to decline gradually. We went a little further, and found our way to a grassy field.

"It looks like there are small game trails here." Murphy said quietly to me.

"It's late afternoon there might be some rabbits out." I said pulling out a blade. He nodded, and we slinked around the edge of the field. He took off a little further ahead of me, and I waited at the end of a trail. We spent a few hours out, and ended up with eight rabbits. We headed back towards the Cavern, and stopped to clean the rabbits out in the woods. We buried the parts we didn't use, and set up a quick drying rack with some of the bamboo we had left outside for the skins. We went inside, and set the rabbits up around the fire to cook. Clarke and Octavia were heading out of the tunnel to the spring, and towards us.

"How many did you get?" Octavia asked excitedly.

"Eight, there is a large grassy field south east from here." I answered.

"That will be helpful, when the rest of the group gets here we'll need to try and find some big game though." Clarke said.

"I agree, if we could find some seeds we could use that field to grow crops." I said.

"Maybe we can find some over the winter, and plant next season." Clarke said.

"Yeah, we need to explore a little more around here maybe we'll find something. Earlier Murphy and I were talking about building big tables, and benches for this main cavern. Do you guys want to help us start building one now while we wait for the rabbits to cook?" I asked.

"That's a good idea, we still have plenty of bamboo." Octavia answered. We all talked about how to design the table, and when we felt like we had good one we started cutting, and tying together poles. The table design was fairly simple, we built the top the same way we built the platform for the beds, but just more narrow. We used a crisscross pattern for the legs. With all four of us working on it we got it done reasonably fast, so we went to work making two benches. We made them the same way we made the table, but just shorter and half the width. When we were finished with it we set it up near the fire pit.

"It looks good, we just need to make a dozen more of them." Octavia said with a little laugh. We all laughed a little with her.

"It does, but you're right we'll need a lot more of them for when everyone else gets here." I said sitting on the bench testing it out. "It's comfortable, it's a good height." I added. Murphy sat down next to me, and Octavia and Clarke sat across from us. There was enough room to comfortably fit four people on each side of the table.

"The rabbits still need a little longer to cook, if the guys come down we could probably get a few more tables done before we eat." Octavia said getting up. "I'm going to go get them." She added. Clarke shrugged.

"We might as well keep building." Clarke said getting up too.

"I'll turn the rabbits." Murphy said moving over to the fire, and rotating all the rabbits.

"Murphy and I collected a lot of material for torches before we got the rabbits, someone should work on putting together torches." I said getting up too, and helping Clarke carry a bundle of bamboo over to start the next table.

"That's a good idea, Jasper is really good at making them, when he gets down here we should have him start on that." Clarke said as she started to cut poles to the right lengths. Murphy joined us a moment later, and it didn't take Octavia long to get the guys down to help us. Jasper went right to work on making torches while the rest of us worked on tables and benches. We made two more before the rabbits were done, and Jasper had made over a dozen torches using the metal handles that fit in the wall sconces. Everyone was hungry, and ready for a hot meal, so we sat at our new table, and ate till we were all full. While we ate we worked out when everyone would take watches. Murphy and I were taking the last watch again, which I didn't mind, we would be able to get to sleep earlier. The hot food put everyone is a good mood, even Sean had stopped giving me dirty looks. When we were done eating we all sat around the fire, and made more torches until we had use all of the stuff we had collected. With the ones Jasper had made we ended up with several dozen torches. We would need them this place was huge.

"We should think about building a drying shed for meat tomorrow, and maybe some storage bins for torch materials, and other supplies." Murphy said breaking the silence.

"That's a good idea, we can use the rest of the bamboo we have here to start it. We still need to collect more though. Jasper, Sean, and Derek I want you to start making trips to the bamboo field first thing in the morning while the rest of start building. We need to collect as much as we can while the weather is still good." Clarke said. None of them protested, considering how long it took them to make their beds it didn't seem like they were eager to do any more building again.

"I think I'm going to go take a bath." I said getting up, and heading towards the spring. "Are you coming?" I asked looking at Murphy. He gave me a sheepish smile, and got up following me to the spring. We reached the spring, and I took off everything except my underwear and bra before stepping into the spring with Murphy right behind me. We made our way over to the far left near the small pool that flowed into the large spring, it was a little hotter over there. I grabbed the soap that we had left there the night before, and started washing my hair and body, Murphy did the same. When we were done scrubbing up, I stepped closer to Murphy, and wrapped my arms up around his neck pulling him close to me. He wrapped his hands around my waist. It was dark out now, and the moonlight poured through the large opening in the wall across from us. The moss that covered the ceiling began to glow that soft iridescent blue again.

"Mmm this is nice…we should do this every night." He said in a quiet relaxed voice.

"I agree." I said running my fingers through his hair. I watched his eyes trail from mine down to my lips. I leaned in close, and pressed them against his. He kissed back, and I let myself get lost in that familiar feeling of his lips pulling at mine . We hadn't kissed like this since that first night when I had saved him. I felt my knees start to go weak, and part of me just wanted to slip into the water with him, and stay like that forever. All I could think about was how soft and warm and wet his lips were, and how he made me feel when I was close to him. Everything about him made me feel safe, I couldn't explain he just did ever since that first night, and that first kiss.

"Get a room!" I heard Jasper yell in a playful way. We pulled away from each other just a little, and both laughed. Everyone else was coming up to take a bath.

"Well it was nice while it lasted." Murphy whispered in my ear. I gave him another quick kiss before leaning my head on his shoulder. The others brought more torches, and the light cast against the wall near the small spring. There was something there, it looked like another doorway.

"Hey look over there, I think there is another tunnel." I said pointing to it. Murphy got out of the spring, and grabbed a torch.

"Do you want to check it out?" He asked as he shined the torch closer to the tunnel, it looked like there was another stair case.

"Hey what is that? Is it another tunnel?" Jasper asked curiously coming over to us.

"Yeah I think so, we're going to check it out. Do you want to come?" I asked.

"Sure let's go." Jasper answered. We all headed for the steps. Murphy took my hand, and led the way with the torch. We winded our way up another spiral staircase. The top of the staircase led out to an opening in the top of the stone mountain. A decorative stone railing surrounded all but one side of the opening where we stepped out of. The night air was cool against my still wet skin, and it made me begin to shiver, but I was too curious not to have a look around. The top of the mountain was almost completely flat, and it looked like that same stone railing surrounded the whole perimeter of it. The mountain wasn't huge as far as mountains went, but still the top of it was sizable. I walked over to the side the spring over flowed out of close to the railing. I peered over the edge, there was a deep ravine with a river running though it the same as the other side. I followed the railing around, and it looked the whole mountain was its own island, and the river split around it. Murphy came up behind me, and wrapped his arms around me. The warmth of his body made me realize how cold I was.

"Come on let's go back down, we can check it out more tomorrow." He said moving away, and taking my hand. Jasper had already gone back down. We made it back down to the spring, and everyone else was still in the water relaxing. Jasper told the others about the mountain top, and we all agreed that we would check it out more in the morning. The hot water almost stung at first this time because I was so cold, but after a few moments it just felt nice. Murphy leaned back against the steps that led out of the spring, and pulled me close to him with my back against his chest. I was so relaxed I just wanted to melt into him. He brushed my hair over to one shoulder, and tenderly kissed my shoulder.

"If you keep doing that I'm going to fall asleep." I said quietly with a soft laugh.

"We should go to bed then." He whispered in my ear.

"Okay let's get out." I said moving away from him. We climbed out of the water, and headed for our room after grabbing our clothes and a torch. We had decided earlier that it would be fine to sleep in our rooms since had the chance to check the place out more, and it seemed safe. We hadn't had any problems last night with wolves or anything else, so it should be fine.

"Turn around so I can get dressed." I playfully ordered him. He smirked back at me, but turned around. I took off my wet bra and underwear, and pulled on my shirt and pants. When I was done I turned around and let him do the same.

"We really need to find more clothes." He said pulling back out blankets. We crawled into our new bed, and laid there facing each other.

"I agree, but I have no idea where we would get new clothes from, or how we would make them…I guess we could try making something out of leather. I'm not really sure how comfortable that would be though." I said tugging at the hem of his shirt playfully.

"This place was supposed to be some kind of tourist trap, maybe there is other places nearby that may still have some salvageable stuff." He said.

"There might be, maybe we'll see something when we check out the mountain top tomorrow. We should be able to see for a good long distance, we might see something that we can go check out." I answered.

"That's a good plan." He said getting up to put out the torch before laying back down. I scooted closer to him, and rested my head on his chest. He wrapped his arm around me, and in a few moments we were asleep.

When it was time for our shift Octavia woke us up. We grabbed our jackets, and headed downstairs to sit next to the fire for our shift. We had the last one, and spent most of it just cuddling next to the fire. I was eager to check out the mountain top, and curious about what we might see. Our shift seemed to go by fairly quickly, and before long everyone was down by the fire with us. We all had something to eat then headed up to the mountain top stair case.

When we reached the top we could see for miles in every direction. The view was amazing. Murphy and I walked closer to the front side first, I could see the bamboo field, and the thick forest beyond that as far as I could see. We made our way along the thick stone railing, and could see the large grassy field we caught the rabbits in last night. Just past it there were several other grassy field all separated by small patches of trees until it looked like the ground leveled out into a valley.

"Out there in that valley, it looks like an old road winds out through it. When the rest of the group gets back we should go check it out." I said.

"We could do that, maybe we could use Lincoln's horse." Murphy said.

"Yeah he might let us do that." I said.

We walked around to the back side of the mountain top on the side where spring flowed out into the river. Across from the ravine it looked like thick forest as far as I could see. We walked back towards the other who were all looking at the hole that was the skylight to the main cavern. When we got closer I could see that it was covered. It looked like a really thick piece of glass covering it. It had to be more than an inch thick with metal flashing all around the edge to keep the water out. Jasper bent down, and knocked on it.

"It doesn't feel like glass I think it's plastic, that's probably why it's lasted." Jasper said.

"We should build small huts up here as lookouts posts…we make them so we could have fire pits, or maybe even try to build small stone stoves." I said.

"That's a good idea. We should haul some stuff up here today, after we work on the drying shed." Clarke said.

"Okay, well let's go get started building that now." I said heading for the stairs. We all made out way back down, and out to the clearing across the bridge. Jasper, Derek, and Sean headed to the bamboo field to start hauling more bamboo back, while the rest of us started on the drying shed. The design we decided to use was simple. We stacked the poles on top of each other letting one poles worth of space between each one, so that the shed could ventilate. We used vaulted roof, and split the poles in half alternating them, so that the rain water would run off. With all four of us working on it, and the simple design it didn't take us long to finish it, and the guys were able to get a few loads more of bamboo hauled in.

When we were done we decided to head back in, and build a few more tables. We let the guy's just keep hauling in the bamboo until about noon when we stopped to take a break, and eat something. We were able to get five more tables made, and had eight of them now.

"We should take a closer look at some the large rooms here at the base of the cavern, and decide what we want to use them for." I said getting up from one of our new tables. The others agreed, and we headed for the first large room on the main cavern room floor. We worked our way through all eight of the large rooms, and all of them were close to the same size. We decided to use them for weapon, tools, food storage, miscellaneous supplies, and the room closest to the tunnel that lead to the spring staircase we decided we would use as a conference room for the counsel.

"Do you think we could make a big round table in here?" Clarke asked.

"I think we could do that, we would have to build it in here." Murphy answered.

"Let's start on it now." Clarke said. We all agreed with her, but Jasper, Derek, and Sean wanted to go back to hauling bamboo. Octavia and I started bringing in pieces of bamboo for the table, while Murphy and Clarke worked on sketching out a design. Once they were happy with one we started cutting pieces to the lengths we needed. The round design was a little more complicated, but it came together well. After a few hours we had it together along with five chairs for each of us who were on the counsel.

We still had a good part of the afternoon left, so we started hauling some of the bamboo up to the mountain top for the lookout shelters we had talked about. We decided to build two, one at each end. Since we still had a lot of light left we started to build it. We used a simple design, we made them even squares, and locked the poles that made the walls up by cutting notches in them, so that they fit together the way a log cabins wall would. We built them to about chest height, then left a foot and a half of space open all around the whole shelter to be able to see in all directions. We added the roof last, and used the same vaulted design we did for the drying shed. We were able to get one of the lookout shelters done before it was completely dark. We were all hungry and tired, so we headed back down to the main cavern to have something to eat, and relax. The other boys were down by the fire pit, and once we got there we all sat at a table to eat.

"We got a lot done today…we still didn't start on a door for the main cavern entrance though." Clarke said.

"We should sketch out how we want to build it tonight, and start on that first tomorrow." I said.

"We might want to consider hunting tomorrow, maybe for some bigger game since we have the drying shed now." Jasper said.

"Murphy and I can go out after we build the door." I said. I got up, and pulled Murphy along with me. I wanted to go take a bath. We made our way to the spring. We quickly worked through our washing routine, then he sat on the steps closest to the small spring the flowed into the large pool. I sat in front of him, and he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close. This was always my favorite part of the day, just getting to be close and relax with him.

"I wonder how Bellamy and Lincoln are doing." I said.

"I don't know…Bellamy was handling everything reasonable well when they left considering the situation. If they aren't back in a few days maybe we should head back to the camp, and check things out." He said quietly against my neck. The feel of his breath against my skin made it hard to think straight.

"I guess we'll see how it goes." I said as he kissed my neck. I shivered, and he laughed against my skin a little before kissing me again. The others came into the spring, and I pulled away from Murphy a little as I turned to face him.

"Are you ready to get out?" He asked.

"Yeah let's go sit by the fire." I answered. We both climbed out, and grabbed up our clothes before heading down to the fire pit. Since it was just us down there we took turns getting dressed.

"I know I already said it, but we really need to get more clothes." I said as I laid my bra and underwear out to dry next to the fire.

"Maybe we'll find something down that road we saw from the top of the mountain." Murphy said laying his things out as well. We both sat by the fire, and he wrapped his arm around my back.


End file.
